Trump, with vest and props, turns his attention to denigrating Biden for “garbage” gaffe

CNN
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Donald Trump erupted Wednesday in the final days of this chaotic campaign, as the former president seized on a garbled remark from President Joe Biden that appeared to insult Trump voters as “garbage.”

Trump stepped off his plane before a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, wearing a bright orange and yellow safety vest and then climbed into a garbage truck – with a large “TRUMP” sign on the side – to answer questions from reporters.

Biden has personally denied calling Trump supporters “trash,” saying his comment on a video call Tuesday night was misinterpreted. The White House insisted in the cleanup that the president was talking about only one person, the little-known comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” this weekend as he warmed up the crowd at Madison Square Garden for Trump.

Regardless of Biden's intention, Republicans, looking to move on from the backlash to the rally in New York City, pounced on the remark, with Trump taking the lead in the campaign.

From the passenger seat of the garbage truck, Trump suggested Biden's comment should be attributed to Kamala Harris herself, saying the episode was “really worse” than when Hillary Clinton called half of Trump's supporters “deplorable” during the 2016 campaign .

In between attacks on Biden and Harris over the remark, Trump said he didn't believe the military would “need to be deployed” to respond to the “enemies within” – the term he uses to describe Americans fighting against could protest his return to office. He also said he would accept the election results, with one known caveat.

“If they find no evidence of fraud anywhere, I accept the results. I hope that will be the case,” Trumps said. “Win, lose or draw, I hope that will be the case.”

Still wearing the security vest, Trump opened his Green Bay rally – one of his last chances to address Wisconsin voters before next week's election – by talking at length about the props. He praised his “very capable people” for getting everything off the ground so quickly and then summarized their discussion beforehand.

“One of my guys came in and said, 'Sir, you know the word 'trash' is the hottest word right now.” Out there, the hottest thing out there. “Sir, would you like to drive a garbage truck?” Trump said. “They stopped that garbage truck. I don't know how the hell they did it so quickly. I have very capable people. They put a big sign on the truck. Have you seen it?”

The former president continued the story, recalling his amazement at the height of the truck and saying he could have used a smaller model. He praised the truck driver's looks – “He looked like Cary Grant in his prime” – and admitted that he was afraid to get into the truck in front of all the cameras. At one point it appeared as if Trump had grabbed a doorknob and missed.

“I said, 'Man, if I don't get up there, this is going to be really embarrassing.' “These stupid people are going to say he’s mentally and physically impaired,” Trump told the crowd in Wisconsin. “So the stairs, the first stairs, are like up here. I say fuck – so I had the adrenaline and did it.”

Harris addressed Biden's comments on Wednesday, telling reporters: “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

“I believe my work is about representing all people, whether they support me or not,” Harris said at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. “And as president of the United States, I will be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not.”

Shortly before Harris took the stage at the Ellipse in Washington – the same park where Trump called on his supporters to “fight like hell” on January 6, 2021 – Biden had lit the fuse in a conversation with pro-Harris Voto Latino supporters .

“And the other day a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico 'a floating island of trash,'” Biden said. “Well, let me tell you something…I don't know the Puerto Ricans that I know…or Puerto Rico, where I am – in my home state of Delaware – they are good, decent, honorable people.”

“The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden added, pausing for a moment before continuing: “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American.”

Harris told reporters that she spoke with Biden after her speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night, but that the “garbage” gaffe was not brought up.

In the transcript of the White House call shared with the press, Biden can be seen saying “supporter” – the singular – rather than “supporter.”

NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, who spent most of his career with the Green Bay Packers, addressed Trump at the rally on Wednesday. He also used the platform to criticize Biden.

“We are not trash,” Favre told the crowd. “How dare (Biden) say that?”

Trump thanked Favre for his support and said there was “no one like him” and that he was a “special guy.”

The former president later returned to the issue of women in his own remarks and his previously expressed desire to “protect” them – a message his advisers had warned him against using, he said.

Trump continued defiantly.

“I want to protect the women of our country,” he said. “Well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I will protect her.”